[Ad] Japandi style wooden kitchen makeover reveal, with Superfront

I’m super excited to share our revamped Japandi style wooden kitchen, created in collaboration with Swedish brand Superfront. It’s our old kitchen, but not quite as you know it. If you’re a long time follower you’ll be fairly familiar with the before – for nearly seven years we’ve loved our light Scandi style IKEA kitchen with cool grey fronts (you can see the before post here). But there comes a time for a change, and with it a new feel. So it’s out with the grey, and in with the warm wood!

By just replacing the kitchen fronts with Superfront and keeping everything else as it was (kitchen carcasses, worktop, backsplash tiles and appliances), we’ve been able to create a completely new kitchen without having to rip everything out and start again. It’s given our kitchen a new lease of life and renewed longevity, helping it move forward with us into the next stage of our lives as we enjoy our new adjoining extension space.

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The new, richer and warmer style feels more grown up somehow – when we first moved in I was in my late Twenties, and I was probably at the time looking for something light and fresh. But now I’m older with a family, and having explored my interior style in my second home (the first being a more student-y flat), I wanted to create a space that felt elegant, timeless and considered. I still liked the all grey look, but after completing the extension, it didn’t quite feel as in-keeping with the rest of the house.

I think there’s also been a general shift in interiors over the past five years, from cooler greys and sleek finishes to cosier beiges and warmer tones. I think as our world gets more and more uncertain, we’re looking to create a place of refuge and comfort at home. The greyer end of the spectrum can often feel stark and chilly, while the warmer end of the spectrum feels a little more inviting. I think it’s also true that people have been seeking to reconnect with nature through their interiors, whether that’s by bringing the outside in or using natural materials. A more natural interior, with tactile finishes and soothing textures, can help us feel grounded and balanced. For me, this warmer colour palette feels instantly more homely, without you really having to add any accessories or extra styling.

There’s a couple of ways that I’ve tried to add a bit more character to this space. The first is by using two tone top and bottom cupboards instead of the same colour throughout, contrasting Superfront’s warm Desert Sand beige with their warm Biscotti wood to create more interest in the space. The wood bookends the space, running from the tall fridge/freezer unit, along the base units, to the wooden panel at the other end of the kitchen. The upper fronts may look fairly similar to the grey units before, but they’re in fact a much warmer beige, which ties in nicely with Little Greene’s Portland Stone Pale that I’ve used in the extension.

I’ve then kept the minimalist handle-less fronts on the top units (they open with push openers), but have used long handle bars on the bottom units to add an extra layer of texture. The brushed metal handles we had before were teeny tiny, you almost couldn’t see them. These handles bring a completely different look, adding more impact and a simple, Japanese feel to the space. I like how they emphasise the continuous lines of the space and add an architectural detail to the plain fronts. They’re also incidentally much easier to open!

Below you can see how the kitchen connects with our new extension space. The opening to the extension used to be the kitchen window looking onto the garden. The kitchen is now in the middle of the house, sandwiched between the old living room at the front of the house and the new extension at the back of the house. The kitchen really is at the heart of the home now. I love how you can look through the spaces and get glimpses of rooms through rooms.

The process of changing the fronts themselves is fairly simple – you just unscrew the old fronts, attach the old hinges into the pre-routed holes in the Superfront fronts and reattach them onto the kitchen units. You then need to spend a bit of time (and patience) adjusting the hinges so the fronts and drawers all line up neatly.

It’s the side, end panels and filler pieces that are a bit trickier to install if you want that really high end, built-in look. Although you could very easily do it yourself with the right tools and skills, we got our builders Polstar Group to install the fronts and side panels because I wasn’t going to cut any corners here and I really wanted a super professional finish. To replace the side panel of the tall unit on the right hand side of the kitchen, they had to pull out the fridge freezer, unscrew the side panel and slide it out.

I’m really pleased with the result. You would hardly know it’s an IKEA kitchen at all – it looks more like a beautiful bespoke kitchen that’s been made perfectly for the space.

At the same time, we’ve changed our oven to a sleek, handle-less smart dual cook oven by Samsung (AD – press product, part of a previous campaign for Pinterest). I love how the concealed appliances and minimalist hob and oven means the focus is all on the beautiful warm materials and little details.

During the process we were also able to replace some of the boxing in above the sink with some old tiles we had left over from when we first fitted the kitchen. I used to hide the boxing in with postcards, but this gives a much better finish.

Finally we have close enough to my dream kitchen. Now that we have moved the dining table into the extension, the next stage is adding a freestanding island in front of the kitchen to create more worktop space. I have something in mind but I’ve been spending my evenings on Vinterior and eBay looking for the perfect vintage piece I can adapt into an island. Watch this space and let me know what you think of our new look kitchen!